Someone I thought on here did the same comparison & ended up with the Flash

A person I ride with on a regular basis has a Superfly HT and he was pissed when I bought the F29 from our local shop. Even though he purchased his bike last year he was looking to sell the Superfly in order to get the F29. he has come to the same conclusion over its handling quirks.
I got my 2nd ride in yesterday. 11.5miles of fast tight & twisty singletrack. WOW!!. The F29 can hold its own through the corners and will fly everwhere else. My face hurt from smiling all day...

Yesterday I got a chance to briefly ride a 29er Specialized Stumpjumper FSR on a trail. Amazing how they handle the roots compared to my 26er. The Spec was comparibly equiped to my Fuel EX8 fox shocks, similar components etc except the wheel thing. I read somewhere some 29ers handle like a dump truck. Well this one handled more like a 3/4 ton truck. Not bad but the trails we were on my Fuel was quicker. More seat time was needed on this bike. It also may have been more bike than was needed on this trail. The rider did admit his old 26er handled the tight and twisty better. I can see it to still be a great bike on more open trails Riding a 29er for the first time felt like the first time I rode a 26er on trails I used to ride a BMX bike on. It felt tall and could roll over anything and the momentum. BTW the new Fox CTD had a good feel compared to my regular Fox fork and DCRV shock. The Spec had a very solid feel but felt really tall sitting.

I called around and found a Trek dealer that has a Stache 8 on hand to look at. Funny talking to the guy on the phone he said a couple employees already bought a Stache (frame and fork) at the dealer show. But still have the handling of the F29 in my mind.

A person I ride with on a regular basis has a Superfly HT and he was pissed when I bought the F29 from our local shop. Even though he purchased his bike last year he was looking to sell the Superfly in order to get the F29. he has come to the same conclusion over its handling quirks.
I got my 2nd ride in yesterday. 11.5miles of fast tight & twisty singletrack. WOW!!. The F29 can hold its own through the corners and will fly everwhere else. My face hurt from smiling all day...

I look fwd to the day I swap them out. While not terrible, there is better out there. They are so thin, going tubless may be an issue. I would love to experiment with them, but I hate messing with a tire full-o-Stans trailside...

Earlier in this thread I mentioned looking for a challenge, thus going to a bike with minimal travel. So far I have found said challenge and loving it. All these years of blasting through rock gardens with 6 plus inches of travel now seems like cheating! The F29 will do it, but you must be on your game! The same old tired trails are new again. I cannot wait to get out there tomorrow morning!

So I got the bike home today and its in my garage on the stand awaiting its 1st ride tomorrow. This should be interesting as the ride will be a 6 mile NIGHT RACE held by my local shop. I rode the coarse yesterday and timed it on my 32lb Single Speed. I cannot wait to compare times. Wish me luck!

Here it is in all its glory (reflectors/plastic pedals and all) after picking it up @ lunch time today. Just got done getting rid of the junk and tuning it up. Ready to go!

I checked the specs and it seems the major differences are the (29-2) being a Shimano drivetrain and Formula brakes and (29-1) having Sram and Avid brakes. The (29-1) is a double 2x10 crank vs the Shimano triple. For me it would be worth going with the F29-1 for the double front for a bit less weight and definitely a lot less chain slap.

I would strongly disagree with you on the chain slap. With the f 2 you get the XT shadow plus which has a clutch that you can turn on and off, I leave mine on and the sound is just as quite as the SRAM xo, I mean you can drop the back of the bike from 4 feet and the things stays really quite.

I am 5 10 and have a medium and I still have about 6 inches of the seat post in the frame. Def a medium or even a small depending on how old you are, if your young you might still be growing, just remember smaller frame = smaller numbers on the scale.

I am 5 10 and have a medium and I still have about 6 inches of the seat post in the frame. Def a medium or even a small depending on how old you are, if your young you might still be growing, just remember smaller frame = smaller numbers on the scale.

I'm 5'11" w/30 inseam, riding a Large frame. I thought I wanted a shorter stem, but after riding it for a while I think I will keep it the way it is.

My shop didn't have a medium. I would have liked to compare. All my other (Non 29") bikes are mediums... Still, i'm happy with the LG.

In MTBs it's not too bad. I too tried a Flash in Large & it felt fine the first times. It's actually not as vast a problem at all as Road bikes. As the wrong size can hurt the back and thus it is more important,

In MTBs it's not too bad. I too tried a Flash in Large & it felt fine the first times. It's actually not as vast a problem at all as Road bikes. As the wrong size can hurt the back and thus it is more important,

by comparison, the Superfly I test rode was a LG and my back was busted within 2 miles. I had to jack the seat fwd to finish my ride. Not so with my LG F29. Not sure of the exact geo number difference between the two, but it is interesting that I have not had any back issues thus far. My seat is a bit FWD right now but not all the way...